Mountain Wanderer Map and Bookstore

About Me

Owner of Mountain Wanderer Map and Book Store and avid hiker for 40 years. Editor of AMC White Mountain Guide and author or co-author of several other White Mountain guidebooks. Member of AMC Four Thousand Footer Committee and WMNF trail adopter.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

LIVERMORE PASS RAMBLE: 5/23/16

With a 1:00 pm start on a sunny Monday the Livermore Pass area beckoned as you can reach a wild and remote area in just two miles from the Kancamagus Highway end of the Livermore Trail. Livermore Pass is a broad gap between Tripyramid's Scaur Peak and Mount Kancamagus. On this trek I could combine a trail section I wanted to check the condition of for the AMC White Mountain Guide with some backcountry bushwhacking.

From its trailhead high on the Kanc, the Livermore Trail follows a grassy logging road at first.

About a third of a mile in it crosses a wildlife opening with a glimpse of the Livermore Pass area ahead.

At 1.7 miles the trail approaches the climb into the pass, overlooked by some gnarled old hardwoods.

The start of the steep climb, which doesn't last too long.

Here the Livermore Trail clings to a narrow, steep, gravelly sidehill along the edge of a gorge. This is a tricky section in winter.

Looking down into the gorge.

The last bit of climbing is in a dry rocky brookbed.

Up in the pass the trail skirts a small high-country meadow.

A sign marks the 2900-ft. high point of the trail.

The trail through the pass feels like it's a million miles from nowhere.

I wanted to visit the northern of two beaver ponds on the high plateau south of the pass. These are accessible in winter via the Kancamagus Brook Ski Trail and offer views of the Tripyramids. The ski trail is way too swampy for summer hiking, so I bushwhacked across from the pass through dry and surprisingly open woods. I made frequent compass and GPS checks in this flat, confusing terrain.

Why the ski trail is not good for hiking.

More of the same in the other direction.

The ponds can be seen resting on their high plateau from North Tripyramid (with deep snowpack) and from the North Slide.

These days they are more swamps than ponds.

Love takes many forms.....

From a couple of visits on snowshoes years ago I knew there were good views of the Tripyramids to be found here. I worked my way around through the dry woods behind the shore and came to the edge for the view. From this angle you can see why Scaur Peak (on the left) was once called the "Fourth Pyramid."

A closer look at the "Tris."

Scaur Peak, a gentle soul among summits.

I was in the neighborhood, so I continued on a gentle whack up to 2980-ft. Flume Peak. I remembered birch glades from a snowshoe visit many years ago and was not disappointed.

4 comments:

Your comment on the toads gave me a good laugh. I'll have to go back and try Mount Flume again from the direction you took. You never mentioned conditions of bog bridges. I don't recall if they are before or after the pass. It's many years since I passed through, but I remember bog bridges ranged from being in pretty poor shape to non-existent and struggling to keep away from the super deep black muck or did you start your whack before you hit that little stretch of trail? That is one bit of trail conditions readers of the guide ought to know about....Ray

Hi Ray,Flume Peak is a quiet gem!I left the trail before getting to that wet section, but I've heard that the bog bridges there are in rough shape. May need to emphasize that some more in the description. Steve